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Friday, June 25, 2010

Make a Video at WinkBall

WinkBall is a new website I discovered that allows you to record your own audio and video using your computer's webcam, as well as import video from your computer. A wink is a video message, or video, audio or text that you save to WinkBall and that you can send to friends' emails, or embed in blogs etc. You can also use the site for live video chat.

It was quick to join, and there are short clear video tutorials to get you up to speed on what the site can do. I made a video message and sent it to a friend in the USA, then received a video reply inside about ten minutes. You can choose to make your vids private or public, and the FAQ is really helpful on nitty gritty details that might arise as problems.

WinkBall is certainly a service to explore with your kids. They could create and send greetings to friends and relatives. They might enjoy reading aloud, reciting a poem or singing a song for someone who is far away. I think it might prove a useful tool for teachers too, especially those in ESL/EFL.

There is a WinkBall video wall feature you might like to explore. It lets you add text, and videos from YouTube, as well as your own winks. You can choose whether to make the wall public or private. Here is a link to a test one I made, which is illustrated in the picture above. You can comment on my wall, but I have enabled comment moderation.

You can see the site's own video description of wink walls on their about page. This might be a really useful way for a class to collaboratively publish videos they've made or found. There's also a WinkBall video blog you can create. The ability to moderate comments makes it useful to parents and teachers too.